Monday, June 11, 2018

Hell-Hounds help Zero become Hero

Hard as it may be to imagine, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad 2.0 may actually be more powerful and influential than Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad 1.0.

At least, that is the perception.

If Dr Mahathir of 1981-2003 derived his power from ruthlessness and single-mindedness of ambition, Dr Mahathir of 2018- has the all of the above, and more.

Today, he enjoys the solid backing of a cabinet and the Pakatan Harapan government who want what he wants. He does not need to cajole them. It is their reform agenda that he has embraced and they love it.

Today, ‎he has an army of grateful Malaysians who feel empowered and liberated by the fall of Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional.

Dr Mahathir enjoyed periods of popularity in his first tour as the PM but this is different. Now he has prayer warriors and keyboard warriors. Now, the people's agenda is his agenda, not the other way around.

That means he pretty much has a free hand to achieve the people's agenda.‎ This bond between Dr Mahathir and the masses also means that anyone who obstructs him is immediately ticked as an enemy; an enemy of the will of Malaysians expressed on May 9.

The Malay rulers who visited him during the standoff between Agong and Dr Mahathir over the appointment of Attorney-General Tommy Thomas understood this.

They wanted to make it clear that many of the sultans did not support the Palace's decision to delay the appointment of the new A-G.

To be sure, the sultans are not fans of Dr Mahathir.

But they understand that this Dr Mahathir is even more formidable than the‎ one who took them on twice and humiliated them just as many times.

This Dr Mahathir does not need to whip Malaysians into a frenzy over the excesses of the country's elite the way he did in the 1980s and 1992.

No need to manufacture any groundswell, because the tide of fury at the excesses of the rich, famous and connected was on full show on May 9.

That groundswell is on tap – and it can be tapped anytime by Dr Mahathir.‎

Dr Mahathir 1.0 was clinical and ruthless but often he was a one-man army trying to re-shape the country.

Dr Mahathir 2.0 is still clinical and ruthless but now he is empowered by an army of Malaysians who want him to live as long as possible to continue as the PM beyond his two-year-term.The adulation by the Pakatan Hell-Hounds has been so moronically blind, fanatical, unhealthy and without context to his previous draconian rule. They behave like whining and whimpering puppies in his lap.

Most of his supporters have forgotten or have no idea of how the elder members of their family, relatives and neighbours suffered under Mahathir dictatorship and constitutional-institutional mutilations during his 4th PM-ship. The profligacy of national resources were wanton.

Some weren't even born then, some were still in diapers and and some didn't have pubic hair yet. But today, minus knowledge of Malaysian political history, they can transform, for the yesterday's dictator and today's man of the hour, from whimpering whining mewing puppies in one instant to rabid raging roaring Hell-Hounds in the next, such has been the mesmerising enthralment of the Mahafiraun.It's said above (by TMI) that Today, ‎he has an army of grateful Malaysians who feel empowered and liberated by the fall of Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional. Wasn't that the voters' exact feelings for PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2004 when he took over from Mahathir the Dictator?

'Bao Gong' reigned supreme with his biggest landslide GE victory in 2004, in large part because the 'non' voters were grateful the old dictator had left

Life is a joke, isn't it, where in one moment (2003-4) the people were glad to see him go, the next (2018) the people adulate him to the point of worshipping the very ground he walks on. The pseudo-divine worshipping was so sickening, undeserving and nauseatingly obvious that UM law lecturer Dr Azmi Sharom has been wont to say Dr M should not be 'worshipped'.

Dr Azmi said during a public forum entitled “Importance of a Strong Opposition for Vibrant Democracy” organised by the Bar Council:“It is as if that he is a god and can do no wrong. People began worshipping him after the election."

“They should realise that he is merely a member of the parliament. He was not granted a separate mandate (from the heavens) but it comes from the parliament (the people)”.Dr Azmi urged instead that Mahathir as the new PM should be open to checks and balances. Can we, when Mahathir had destroyed so many during his previous PM tenure from 1981 to 2003?

Dr Azmi reminded the government to be transparent and exercise freedom of information to allow checks and balances from the ground up.He also suggested for the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to be reviewed to ensure openness in a people-centric governance.But alas, try to criticise Mahathir and the Pakatan Hell-Hounds will rip you to pieces.

7 comments:

Why worry about freedom of press, separation of powers, rise of Mahathirism when the reforms are just only underway and some can't even be implemented until laws are changed and credible people are put back in place.

Why the need to continue harping and barking at this earlier stage.

Are these attempts to derail and stop the train of reforms for certain self interest or to usurp power?

So desperate that any normal thinking person can see thru all these nonsence.

About Me

Just a bloke interested in the socio-political whatnots around the world, particularly those in Malaysia. Loves a laugh or/and story or two, or more, but loves civility and courtesy much more, especially in politics